{"id":631,"date":"2015-02-08T16:36:48","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T16:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/?p=631"},"modified":"2015-02-08T16:36:48","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T16:36:48","slug":"acupuncture-and-my-search-for-chronic-pain-treatments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/2015\/02\/08\/acupuncture-and-my-search-for-chronic-pain-treatments\/","title":{"rendered":"Acupuncture and My Search for Chronic Pain Treatments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by @RobertaHeale, Associate Editor, EBN<\/p>\n<p>What I like about being a nurse practitioner is the ability to provide wholistic care to patients including assessment, diagnosis and treatment.\u00a0 It brings me great professional satisfaction to not only monitor my patient\u2019s response to treatment of chronic conditions, but also to educate them about their condition and implement preventative care measures.\u00a0 However, one area of care falls short; the management of chronic pain.<\/p>\n<p>Chronic pain issues, at various degrees, represent a large percentage of the reason for patient appointments.\u00a0 Chronic pain is often combined with other issues:\u00a0 osteopororis and chronic pain; cardiac disease and chronic pain; diabetes and chronic pain\u2026the list goes on.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been frustrated and concerned that the predominant treatment of chronic pain in my repertoire of options is medication.\u00a0 Pharmaceuticals may take the pain away, but only for a short time and they are fraught with problems:\u00a0 side effects (some deadly), addiction, cost and more.\u00a0 Besides, pills don\u2019t treat the problem, only the symptom.\u00a0 In addition, in Canada, physiotherapy, massage, chiropractic etc, are not included in health coverage.\u00a0 Most of the patients I see do not have additional health benefits to cover these treatment options and can\u2019t afford to pay for it themselves.<\/p>\n<p>I happened to work with a nurse practitioner who practices acupuncture.\u00a0 What a revelation! I didn\u2019t know much about acupuncture, but over time, her successes in treating patients with chronic pain took me down a path of discovery.<\/p>\n<p>Classical acupuncture has been documented in China for thousands of years. The earliest work about acupuncture, the Nei Jing, was compiled around 305-204 BC and contained everything that was known about acupuncture to that point.\u00a0\u00a0 Since that time, acupuncture has remained an important part of Chinese medicine.\u00a0 See this site for more information about the history of acupuncture: <a title=\"history of acupuncture\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1AJAKTa\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/1AJAKTa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Western medicine has been slow to embrace acupuncture.\u00a0 However, there has been increasing interest and implementation of acupuncture since the 1970\u2019s.\u00a0 More and more scientific evidence has accumulated that supports the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic pain, as well as a number of other conditions1. Check this out <a title=\"acupuncture and chronic pain\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/1za9K8w\">http:\/\/bit.ly\/1za9K8w<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nurses in Ontario, my home province, along with all other regulated healthcare providers, are eligible to include acupuncture in their practice.\u00a0 It goes without saying that this is after receiving training from an accredited education program.\u00a0 So, that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing.\u00a0 I started an entry level acupuncture course.\u00a0 I\u2019ll complete the online portion and then participate in an intensive onsite seminar over a number of days where I\u2019ll poke other students with extremely fine needles and, hopefully, get them in the right place. \u00a0At this point, I\u2019ll be allowed to implement basic acupuncture with my patients.\u00a0 A few of my patients are aware that I\u2019m taking this program\u2026they\u2019re just as frustrated as I am with the scant options for chronic pain and are waiting for me to finish my program.\u00a0 Actually, all but one person I know, has volunteered to let me practice on them.<\/p>\n<p>So, this is a blog without an ending\u2026yet.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll write a follow up in the Spring and let you know about my experiences in implementing acupuncture into my practice.\u00a0\u00a0 Stay tuned!<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0Wang, S., Kain, Z. N. &amp; White, P. (2008). Acupuncture analgesia:\u00a0 1.\u00a0 The Scientific basis. \u00a0International Anesthesia Research Society, 106(2), 602-610.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by @RobertaHeale, Associate Editor, EBN What I like about being a nurse practitioner is the ability to provide wholistic care to patients including assessment, diagnosis and treatment.\u00a0 It brings me great professional satisfaction to not only monitor my patient\u2019s response to treatment of chronic conditions, but also to educate them about their condition and implement [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/2015\/02\/08\/acupuncture-and-my-search-for-chronic-pain-treatments\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-primary-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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